This invention relates to a disposable liner for a childrens' potty chair and more particulary to such devices for a potty chair having a mechanism for sounding musical tones upon use by the child.
Disposable flexible plastic containers that appear in the art for receiving excrement are generally of two types. An example of the first type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,924 issued Sept. 7, 1971 to Kneisley. Kneisley discloses an apparatus suitable for use as either a storage unit or a commode having a sacklike container resting on a support member. The open end of the sack is attached to a flange which maintains the upper end of the sack in a wide open position. Additionally, the flange may be rotated, thereby rotating the upper portion of the sack and causing the sides of the sack to converge and twist together thereby effectively sealing the contents of the lower portion of the sack from the ambient air. An example of the second type of container that appears in the art is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,767 issued Nov. 4, 1969 to Friesen which discloses a disposable container for receiving excrement. This device takes the general shape of a bottle and has a drawstring arranged around its opening for closing the opening after use. The device is designed to receive the excrement from a bed pan or other similar container rather than directly from the donor.
In addition to the two types of disposable containers described above, there are various musical potty chairs in the prior art, most of which utilize a commercially available music box mechanisn for producing the desired musical tones. Some devices are battery operated, see for example, U. S. Pat. No. 3,691,980, issued Sept. 19, 1972 to Shastal, while others are spring actuated, as is the music box of the present invention. All of these devices, however, provide a spring based pivoting support for the potty. The support is usually arranged so that when the child eliminates, the additional weight of the excrement in the potty causes the support to undergo pivotal movement in opposition to the spring. This pivotal movement then causes a member to disengage the escapement mechanism of a music box to enable it to operate. The moving parts of these devices, especially the potty, comprise a substantial mass, the inertia of which must be overcome, including static friction of the mechanism, solely by the small weight of the child's excrement. The mechanism, therefore, must be finely balanced and have low fricton bearings at all pivot points. To this inventor's knowledge no attempt as ever been made to reduce the mass of the device by providing a potty of open basket like structure having a diposable liner inserted therein.